Where Cason Wallace, Chris Livingston stand in latest NBA mock drafts

The 2023 NBA Draft is just a little over a week away. We’re now past the withdrawal deadline, which means scouts and front-office executives know exactly who is going to be in the pool of eligible draft players. As most of the Big Blue Nation already knows by now, a handful of former Kentucky players will hope to hear their names called once commissioner Adam Silver takes the podium on Thursday, June 22 at the Barclays Center.

Cason Wallace is the most notable among them, as the All-SEC Freshman guard has long been a projected first-round selection and could even wind up going in the lottery. He was one of 19 players invited to the green room, according to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, typically a good indicator that his name will come off the board sooner rather than later.

But the rest of the one-time Wildcats are much tougher to gauge in terms of draft projections. Oscar Tshiebwe, Chris Livingston, and Jacob Toppin all elected to forego their remaining college eligibility in favor of starting their professional careers. That being said, only Livingston appears to be in the running as an actual draftee.

With just eight days separating us from the NBA Draft in Brooklyn, NY (8:00 p.m. EST on ESPN), a couple of major media outlets updated their mock drafts. Both ESPN and The Athletic released in-depth draft content over the last 24 hours to help give us a better idea of where things stand with these former Wildcats. Let’s check out what they had to say.

Scoot Henderson helped his standing in Charlotte with a highly impressive workout, showing an impressive level of conditioning, intensity, explosiveness and shot-making.

New mock draft on ESPN: https://t.co/P5kvDwokMf

— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) June 14, 2023

Starting with Wallace, ESPN actually bumped him up two spots from their last mock draft. The worldwide leader now has Wallace going just outside of the lottery at No. 15 overall to the Atlanta Hawks. Meanwhile, The Athletic (which updated its Big Board), views Wallace as the No. 14 overall prospect in this draft class.

Wallace is a player with one of the biggest draft ranges of any prospect in the class, starting with Washington, Utah and Dallas in the top 10 and continuing through the late teens depending on how the night evolves. Atlanta hasn’t had an easy time getting players into its building, as approximately 20 prospects strongly feel they will be selected in the lottery and a significant number of those insist on conducting one-on-zero workouts that are normally reserved for top picks. The Hawks’ relatively crowded roster and uncertain direction moving forward makes it difficult to project how many minutes will be available for younger players in the short-term, which has complicated their sales pitch. A tough, defensive-minded combo guard such as Wallace, who can operate in various lineups, could make sense in either their present situation or a future one depending on how the franchise proceeds with Trae Young.

Jonathan Givony, ESPN

The running consensus around Wallace is that he’ll land somewhere in the range of late lottery to the late teens. He could potentially crack the top 10 though. SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell updated his mock draft this week too and he has Wallace landing with the Dallas Mavericks at No. 10.

Looking at Livingston, his stock has seemingly improved after he officially announced that he was staying in the draft. ESPN currently has the 6-foot-6 wing going with the 53rd overall pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Athletic ranks Livingston as the 60th-best available prospect in this year’s draft.

But as for Tshiebwe and Toppin, they aren’t listed as projected picks in ESPN’s mock, but The Athletic did slot both in their Top 100 best available players. Tshiebwe ranks No. 72 while Toppin checks in at No. 93. Additionally, ESPN’s best-available list has Tshiebwe at No. 60 and Toppin at No. 86.